Ex-eBay director Samarjeet Singh is strengthening the basics of m-commerce players with Iksula
Samarjeet Singh stepped into the world of entrepreneurship with the launch of Iksula in August 2007 in Mumbai. This was after having worked as the head of Seller Marketing and Categories at eBay, India for five years and influencing more than 10,000 businesses to start e-business..
Iksula is an e-retail strategy and consulting company that helps e-commerce firms set up and run their online retail business. It is working with many international and Indian e-commerce companies in building their online brand image through online marketing and technology consulting solutions.
The company has worked with some renowned players in the market, namely Amazon Web Services, Big Bazaar, WayFair, Chroma Retail, FCUK, Health Total and more.
Samarjeet started Iksula in a 1,000-sq.ft office with a seed capital of Rs 4 lakh. The objective was to address the gap in the market for service businesses that are focussed on internet retail.
Samarjeet says,
Our first client was Wayfair.com which got publicly listed on NYSE in September 2014. Our 2007-2008 turnover was a few million rupees and we have grown by 100 per cent every year of our existence.
The biggest challenge Samarjeet faced during the initial stage was to instil a sense of ownership and high-energy levels in his employees. Iksula implemented Human Resources Information System (HRIS), ticketing systems, learning and development, and employee engagement programmes. The company has also designed many cultural initiatives such as I-Talk, Family Challenge Cup, Gabbar Cup and others.
Consulting services
Iksula offers consulting services around marketing operation, technology and online marketing, and as mobile is the growth driver for e-commerce players, the company also offers mobile consulting and development services. For example, Iksula helped Big Bazaar to build its mobile app, Big Bazaar Direct.
Iksula has developed 300 applications in all areas of e-retail: navigation, search, shopping cart, payment gateways, order management, warehouse management systems, shipping management, catalogue management and more. Samarjeet says the company has handled projects ranging between Rs one and 10 million.
Iksula has a team of 650 employees, 400 of which are for product, content and marketing operations, while 100 work in the technology department, and 75 on internet market.
Samarjeet says,
We are the most scaled up e-retail services business in India with deep domain expertise talent, process which is focussed on retail clients, and technology to automate and create efficiency and experience with deep insights on consumers.
Restructuring revenue mechanism
Currently, Iksula has more than 30 clients across India US, India and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. According to Samarjeet, US is its biggest market, in terms of revenue generation.
In a bid to spread the essence of Iksula everywhere, Samarjeet actively participates in all industry retail and e-retail forums in India, MENA region and US markets. He considers industry forums, outreach programmes and webinars as channels to augment the company’s presence and acquire significant number of clients.
Samarjeet says,
Our business runs on a service-based revenue model which is linked to the number of clients, projects and resources. Our endeavour is to increase our revenue per resource by 25 per cent in next two years by offering higher value-adding services for our clients.
He adds that Iksula will touch a revenue number of USD six million by the end of this fiscal year, USD 25 million by 2020 and around USD 35 million by 2022.
